Things To Do in Rome: Visit the Holiest Catholic Site – St Peter’s Basilica

January 19, 2014

Now how do I even describe St Peter’s Basilica ? Where do I begin? Am I even allowed to do that? Me, a lowly person – to describe the greatest church in the whole history of Christianity? I’ll sure try but I assure you, whatever I’m going to tell you right now and whatever photos I will post – doesn’t even come close to what you will actually see/feel if you go there yourself.

As a Catholic (though not a very good one), I’ve had this dream to visit Rome someday and see the St Peter’s Basilica myself. I never really believed though that that dream will actually come true – twice. I was in awe the first time I was there, the feeling of actually being there and seeing it with my own eyes was too surreal. The second time was no different, I was inspired and elated to be in this place. It’s not only because of its religious importance in the Christian world but it’s the actual beauty of the basilica itself.

The architectural design from the outside of St Peter’s Basilica was remarkable (regarded as the greatest building of the late Renaissance period) while the interior design was amazing with all its mosaics and artworks. It’s probably even considered as a museum with all its important pieces of artworks from famous artists such as Michelangelo, Bernini, Raphael and many many more. The names of important people involved in this particular building (be it the architectural or interior design) was too many to even remember, I admire our tour guide for being able to memorize all of those names, dates, etc. I highly suggest for you to take a professional tour guide by the way if you are to visit this place. The guide provided to us by Trafalgar was a history professor and she was remarkable. She had information about the whole of Rome that not even Wikipedia can provide for you, I think. :p

The below piece is probably my favorite amongst everything that I saw inside St Peter’s Basilica. This is Bernini’s baldacchino which is actually 30 meters tall, it doesn’t look like it because the dome above it is much much much bigger. Our tour guide explained that this is actually claimed to be the largest piece of bronze in the world.

It’s an optical illusion just like Bernini’s colonnade at St. Peter’s square below:

If you’re standing at the right spot (marble disc) and look through this colonnade, you’ll only see one row and if you step out of it, all four rows will be visible. Boring? Not really. If you see the actual size of these colonnades, you’ll understand why.

I do believe that even if you’re not a Catholic and St Peter’s Basilica doesn’t really hold much importance for you religiously, you’ll still enjoy this place as long as you have a curious eye for beauty. 🙂